


A Charmed Life

by Lovemypadfootmarauder



Category: Charmed, The Covenant (2006)
Genre: Curses, F/M, Magic, Spellbooks, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-28 21:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/996845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovemypadfootmarauder/pseuds/Lovemypadfootmarauder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: I own no plot or characters from the Covenant or Charmed I own only Chloe and her story. This is an AU story following the events of the Covenant but with changes. If anyone has any questions or confusions just shoot it to me and I'll try to answer best I can.<br/>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Witches at the Dells

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own no plot or characters from the Covenant or Charmed I own only Chloe and her story. This is an AU story following the events of the Covenant but with changes. If anyone has any questions or confusions just shoot it to me and I'll try to answer best I can.  
> Enjoy!

Drunk high school parties were not Chloe’s idea of a good time, yet here she was. Bonfires, Djs and at least a hundred drunk teenagers dancing on the grass out at the Dells was enough to make Chloe crave a mug of hot chocolate and her bed. Even though she wanted to leave she was here for a reason, her new roommate Kate had promised to introduce Chloe to her boyfriend and his friends. Now usually Chloe wouldn’t be so desperate to meet guys but this was a special circumstance. Kate had told her that Pogue, Kate’s boyfriend, and his three friends were nicknamed the Sons of Ipswich. If these boys really were the Sons of Ipswich then Chloe’s searching was over.  
“Come on slow poke!” Kate nudged Chloe in the side with her elbow, “The boys should be here any minute.”  
“Great!” Chloe replied with a teasing grin as she followed Kate over towards the DJ stand, “Maybe when we see him you’ll stop moaning about missing him!”  
Her new friend gasped in mock outrage, “You brat!”  
Chloe couldn’t help but laugh at the other girl. A strange feeling caused Chloe to look up at the cliffs that rose over the party and she thought she could make out figures standing on the edge. She was forced to look away when Kate pulled her arm and shoved a plastic cup into her hand, she protested and passed the drink off to the closest person. “I don’t drink.”  
Kate rolled her eyes, “Ok buzzkill. I’ll get you soon,” she teased.  
“Oh, I’m sure.” Chloe said absentmindedly, peering into the fog she tried to look for the figures on the cliff but if they had ever been there they were gone now. She shrugged it off and turned to look at Kate just as her friend let out a happy cry.  
“They’re here. The Sons of Ipswich.” Kate breathed.  
Kate certainly had her attention now, “You make it sound so serious.”  
Her roommate didn’t respond, she was too busy kissing a tall guy with long dark blonde hair. Kate pulled back and pouted, “Babe you’re late.”  
The guy kept his arm around his girlfriend and apologized, “Sorry, I had a thing with the family. Who’s this?” He asked with a friendly gesture towards Chloe.  
“My new roommate. Chloe, this is Pogue Perry, Tyler Simms, Reid-“  
“Garwin!” Pogue’s very blonde friend finished for Kate. “Reid Garwin, Goodevening.”  
With a half laugh Chloe took his proffered hand and shook it firmly, “Goodevening.” She replied gravely.  
Reid smirked and instantly Chloe hoped he wasn’t the one. “You know Chloe was my grandmother’s name, you kind of remind me of her actually. I-“  
The last of the four boys cut off Reid’s bad attempt at flirting by introducing himself, “Caleb Danvers, and you don’t bring my grandmother to mind in anyway.” He reached for her hand as well.  
Chloe grasped his hand just as firmly as his friend’s and smirked, “Well if that’s the case, my name’s Chloe Halliwell.”  
Chloe’s view of Caleb’s intoxicating smile was cut off abruptly by a head of curly red hair and she missed the small gleam of recognition in his eyes. “Hi Caleb.” The new girl greeted in a fairly seductive tone.  
“Kiera.” Caleb nodded to her, sans smile.  
“How was your summer?”  
Caleb glanced at Chloe before starting to answer, “Um.”  
The girl turned around with an expression Chloe had seen a thousand times back in San Francisco on the faces of girls who thought the world should belong to them, and not just on demon girls either. “I’m Kiera.”  
“Chloe.”  
The girls face brightened and Chloe instantly wanted to blow her up, “Oh! From the California public. Tell me how does one go about getting into Spencer from a public?”  
“Why don’t you give a rest Kiera.” Caleb intervened before Chloe could so much as open her mouth to respond.  
Another good looking guy popped in on the scene, with his face too close to Caleb’s. “No why don’t you give it a rest.”  
Oh boy, she thought this guy is just begging for a fight. Caleb looked at his feet half smiling, “I don’t want any trouble Aaron.”  
“I’m sure you don’t.” Aaron replied back and Chloe had had enough.  
“Ok tough guy, listen up.” Chloe said authoritatively, “You too Miss Priss. Why don’t you go starting fights somewhere else because if you wanna fight here you’d better be prepared to finish what you start. And quite honestly I don’t think either of you have the balls to do anything more than talk shit. We came out here to have a good time and we,” She gestured to the people she was hoping would become her friends, “are going to have a good time even if it means stepping over your asses on the ground. You hear me?”  
Keira looked at Chloe who stood at least two inches shorter than her with outraged horror while Aaron clenched his jaw and the Sons burst into laughter. Kate clapped her hands which had a chain effect on all the people watching. Soon Chloe was grinning and she looked at Caleb who seemed pleased.  
Aaron who was now purple faced with rage made to step forward and was held back by one of his cronies who said, “You posers make me want to puke.”  
“Then go ahead.” Reid told him, and the crony just rolled his eyes. Aaron, with the choice of staying and looking like a bigger idiot or walking away turned his back on the group. He was a step ahead of his friend when the guy suddenly turned green and emptied the contents of his stomach all over Aaron’s back. Kiera shrieked while everyone else erupted into startled laughter. A guy from the crowd shouted, “Nice one!” and when Chloe looked around to see who had spoken she caught the eye of a guy staring right at her. She turned away sharply, something in his gaze unsettled her. Her smile died further when she glanced at the Sons who were glaring at Reid. Chloe looked away quickly, seems an awful lot like magic she thought. Looks like she found the right guys, now it was just time for a test. Before she could say anything to the boys the DJ called out over the speakers that the cops were on their way and everyone started to run.  
The group followed the runners at a quick walk. “You guys need a ride?” Pogue asked Kate.  
“No Chloe drove us out here.”  
“Oh, see you back at the dorms?”  
Kate turned to look at him when she responded, “Naw, It’s getting late I think I’m just going to crash.” She kissed her boyfriend, “Call me in the morning?”  
Pogue nodded and a voice came from behind them, “I could use a lift.”  
Caleb and Chloe turned to look at the newcomer as Kate told him, “No problem.” Chloe was less than pleased when she saw it was the guy that had been staring at her. Caleb offered the guy his hand, “Caleb.”  
“Chase” The guy responded, “Man that’s guys puking made his exit so much funnier.”  
Reid clapped Caleb on the back, “Didn’t it though?” he teased.  
The group separated as they reached the cars, the girls and Chase in Chloe’s car and the four Sons in Tyler’s. Chloe opened the door to her powder blue Jetta and shared a grin and a wave with Caleb. Getting in she tucked her short dark hair behind her ear to conceal the flick of her finger as she moved the spark plugs out of their sockets just a little bit. So when she put the keys in the ignition and attempted to start her car, predictably it didn’t start. She opened the door and stuck her head out and yelled at Caleb in fake distress, “My car won’t start!”  
“Hop in with us!” Pogue called.  
Chloe shook her head, “I can’t just leave it here.”  
Reid jumped out of his seat, “I can fix it for you.” Caleb muttered something to Reid that she didn’t catch and he said something she couldn’t hear back. She popped the hood and Reid took a look under it. Barely two seconds later, he called out to her to try it again. She did and when she heard the engine catch she smirked knowing for sure that he was one of the ones she’d been looking for and she was almost certain the rest of the boys were the other three. Reid latched the hood and ran back to the car waving triumphantly at the thank you Chloe called after him.  
Not wasting any more time she put the car into drive and followed the train of teenage drivers out of the Dells. Chase after a few failed attempts at engaging Chloe in conversation settled for chatting animatedly with Kate while Chloe drove forcing down shivers. There was something off about the guy and she had no interest in finding out what. Although if he did turn out to be some kind of warlock or demon she’d call her brothers in from California and vanquish the sucker. Because after all she was the daughter of a Charmed one, and a Whitelighter at that.


	2. Magic is pain

Caleb opened the door to his family's manor house and shut it behind him as quietly as could, hoping not to wake his mother. He was stopped on the first step of the stairs by his mother's voice. "You're home early." She called from the den.

He followed the sound of her voice into the room, hoping she didn't have a drink in her hand like usual, and his heart sunk when he saw the glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. "It's after midnight mother, what are you still doing up?"

She glanced up at him from the armchair she sat in, and tapped her pinky on the glass. "Thinking about my baby, turning 18 this week." She paused to take a slow drag from her cigarette. When she looked up at him again her face was a mask of pain. "God, you look so much like him in this light."

Caleb felt his gut clench once again, just like every time his mother brought up his father in an alcohol induced haze. "You know he was a year younger than you when we met," She continued, "did I ever tell you that?"

Caleb sighed internally, "Yeah you told me. Let's get you up to bed." He told her gently but she didn't listen.

"So handsome, he was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. I'm so afraid that I'll lose you like I did him." His mother stared at her glass as she spoke and then took another puff off her cigarette.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not him?" He asked her with a hint of tired exasperation in his voice. "Ha!" His mother replied, "That's what he said about his father." She set her glass down with a clang onto the table. "You know these _powers_ you and your friends developed when you were thirteen are nothing compared to what you get when you ascend. They are a thousand times stronger." Her voice was scornful, and then it softened. "Caleb, they are so seductive, you'll suddenly think the world is yours for the taking and then you really start to use, and use. Aging each time, taking bits of your life until there is nothing left."

Caleb ducked his head and closed his eyes, "I won't"

"That's what he said." His mother picked up her glass for another swallow of the amber liquid inside it. "I can't lose you both, I won't survive it this time, I won't." Caleb sighed and turned away from his mother, not being able to bear looking at her any longer. He wanted so much to spare her the pain, the pain of losing his father to his magic addiction and the eventual loss of Caleb himself. No matter what happens after he ascends on his eighteenth birthday the aging process had already started, the powers he's used in the five years since his powers manifested have already taken away parts of his life. The worst part of it was, that even though he had gotten his powers before the rest of the Sons he'd used his the least. So he knew he'd have to watch his friends wither and die before he did.

He came off of the last step and onto the second floor landing, making a right towards his room. He opened the door and threw his jacket on the chair before face planting onto his bed. He stretched out trying to relax tense muscles. It was getting harder and harder for him to relax, he was getting closer and closer to receiving his full gifts and he had to watch his mother fall deeper and deeper into her tailspin of alcohol and depression. Even before his father had left them his mother had begun to have a problem with alcohol, and it wasn't hard for Caleb to understand why. Watching your husband's body grow old to look twice his age while you remained young and beautiful had to have been terrible for her. Hell, it was hard on Caleb and he had been barely old enough to know about the powers and their consequences. It was watching the pain in his mother's eyes more than anything else that had given him the self-control not to abuse the powers he was given. He never wanted his mother to look younger than her only son. Unbidden the image of a short girl with dark wavy hair and sparkling green eyes popped into his mind and brought a smile to his face. Kate's roommate, Chloe was quite a girl from what Caleb had seen of her so far.

She looked barely fifteen even though he knew she had to be close to eighteen to be a senior. Yet for all that youthfulness she sure had a fiery personality, to say the things she had to Aaron and Kiera had taken guts. He laughed a little out loud thinking about it, at least he knew now not to piss her off. He had a feeling even with his powers she could still do some damage if she tried. Which brought him back to her last name, Halliwell. He'd heard it somewhere before. At the Dells he'd dismissed it when he'd thought it sounded familiar but know he was sure he'd heard it before. Especially since she was from San Francisco and with what he knew about that city it was supposed to be a supernatural hotbed.

He'd have to remember to ask Gordon about it tomorrow when he brought him the pills from the pharmacy. With that thought in mind he drifted off to an uneasy sleep with his shoes still on and on top of the covers.


	3. Magical Peeping Tom

"So why do you call them the Sons of Ipswich, what are they the next Nsync or something?" Chloe asked Kate as she started to undress for her shower.

Her friend threw her head back and laughed. "I like you you're funny, not like all the other stuck up bitches." She sat down at her desk in front of the mirror and picked up her hairbrush. "No they're supposedly descended from the five founding families that settle the Ipswich colonies in the 1600s. Old money." She grinned into the mirror at Chloe, "You know Caleb and Reid were both checking you out tonight, but if it were me I'd go for Caleb."

Chloe shrugged off her tank top, "Why, he more mature or something?" She subtly asked if he was the oldest.

Kate didn't notice the inquiry, "Well he is the oldest out of all of them actually his birthday is this Saturday," Chloe heaved a sigh of relief, so Caleb really was the one. "but no he's just one of those majorly good guys."

Getting off of her bed Chloe asked, "How so?"

"Like he could stay here in the dorms and party with the rest of us but he stays home to take care of his mom." Kate's voice had the same tone as if she were talking about a basket of kittens instead of a high school senior boy.

The shorter girl frowned, "Is she sick or something?"

"Something, she kind of became and alcoholic when Caleb's dad died."

Chloe wrapped herself in her towel and grabbed her shower caddy. "That's sad."

"I guess." Kate said with a shrug.

"So…" Chloe started with a hint of mystery to her voice. "is he seeing anyone?"

Kate ate it up, turning to grin at her new friend. "So we are interested! He's completely single."

"Good." Chloe chirped, "I'm going to shower now." She told her roommate before going out the door and left towards the bathrooms. Geez, she thought, the dorms look creepy at night. Shrugging off the thought she entered the bathroom and headed towards the closest shower. She hung her towel and caddy on their respective hooks and turned on the water, waiting until it was warm to step under the spray. She took her time washing her hair and body before she felt a tingle on the back of her neck like eyes watching her. Then a flash of light and one of the light bulbs shattered. She jumped and turned around, seeing nothing but unable to shake the feeling that something was watching her she gave herself one quick rinse and turned off the water. She wrapped herself in the towel and gathered her things.

Stepping out onto the tile she looked around and saw nothing but her own reflection in the mirrors. She ducked and looked under the stalls, seeing nothing and feeling foolish she straightened. She stepped close to the broken glass on the floor and looked up at the empty socket. The feeling of being watched increased and she held her hands protectively in front of herself. Something touched her on the shoulder and she whirled around with a shriek and threw her hands out in front of herself accidentally shattering one of the mirrors. "Shit." She muttered and fixed it with a wave of her hand before rushing out of the bathrooms.

She walked quickly back to the room she shared with Kate but stopped when she felt another presence in the hall. She slowly turned to look behind and when she faced front again Reid was a foot away. Shrieking for the second time in as many minutes she froze him, when she realized what she had done she quickly glanced around to make sure no one had seen before unfreezing him. "You scared me!" She said and slapped at his hand.

"Sorry." He said with a trace of smirk, "Didn't mean to, scouts honor."

She sighed and ran a hand through her wet hair. "Don't be, I'm just a little jumpy, felt like someone was watching me in the showers."

He considered her for a moment before stepping past her and titling his head, "Let's take a look shall we?"

"No!" His eyes widened, "I mean no, it's ok there was no one there. I doubt there'd be anyone now."

Reid shrugged, "if you're sure." He paused for a moment and a half smile appeared on his face like he was gearing up to be charming. "You know, Tyler and I are going out tomorrow night, you should come with us."

"I don't know." Chloe hedged, the last thing she needed was the wrong Son getting too attached. She wasn't even sure if she was going to want the one she was here to see. Reid was probably a good guy, but it'd be better off for everyone involved if she didn't so much as think of going there. "I know Kate and I are going into to town with that Chase guy tomorrow, I'm not sure if she was planning on doing anything else."

"Oh sure." Reid said with a nod, "I'll text Kate tomorrow, see what's going on."

"Sure." Chloe agreed with a small smile. Reid gave her a half salute and walked away towards his own room. She turned back to the door and let out a huge sigh before going in. "What am I getting myself into?" She muttered.

In the room Kate was just crawling into bed and a thought popped into Chloe's head. "Hey what happened to the fifth?"

The brown eyed girl frowned, "What?"

"The fifth family, what happened to them?"

"Oh!" Kate's eyes lit up in understanding, and she formed her face to match a mysterious smile. "They say that the fifth was killed off during the Salem Witch Hunts, cool huh?"

"Hmm." Chloe responded nonchalantly, but inside her heart twisted. The witch hunts had killed her own ancestor, Melinda Warren. Yet Chloe knew that the family that was killed off was the reason for the curse of the Covenant.


	4. A Curse from the Past

Driving down the main road into town Caleb called Pogue. "Hey man." Po answered on the third ring.

"Hey, we have a problem." He said grimly into his cell.

"What now?" Pogue sounded exasperated.

"Someone used last night, and I mean big time." Caleb sighed. "I think it was Reid."

"What makes you think it was Reid?"

Caleb scoffed, "It's always him, but I've never felt it when someone has used a power before have you?"

"No, I don't know maybe it's because you're so close to ascending."

Sighing he answered. "I don't know maybe," He said doubtfully. "But I'm telling you it was strong enough to wake me from a dead sleep."

Pogue voice was lower and more serious when he replied. "You know he's only using his powers to piss you off because he's jealous you're ascending first man."

"I know, but I'm telling yo- Shit!" Caleb dropped the phone in shock, the car swerving when a darkling burst into existence in the passenger seat, using the face of the kid that died the night before out at the Dells. The face pulled apart into a monstrous creature with holes for eyes and mouth before disappearing just as fast as it had appeared. With both hands on the wheel Caleb turned to look forward and froze. He felt his eyes go black just before everything else did as the car and exploded on impact with a truck and he along with it.

It felt like a lifetime but in reality it was less than a second before he and his car reformed on the highway and he slammed his foot on the brake and threw the car into park. He was drenched in a cold sweat, shaking and gasping. He could hear Pogue voice yelling at him from the floorboards and with a shaking hand he reached down and picked up the phone. He took a breath and spoke into the receiver. "I just saw a darkling, it was in the form of that dead kid they found at the Dells last night."

"Yeah I saw his picture in the morning newspaper, but who would send you a darkling?"

Caleb shook his head and breathed, "I have no idea, something is wrong I can feel it."

"Look we need to talk to the boys tonight. They'll probably be at Nicky's, so we'll see them then."

"Definitely" Caleb agreed, leaning his head on the rest and closing his eyes. He hung up the phone and dropped it into the cupholder. He sighed again trying to getting rid of his tension, it didn't work but he shook his head anyways and threw the car into drive.

He leaned against the pharmacy counter as the pharmacist filled a prescription for him. He rubbed his temples with his thumbs and sighed. He lifted his head just as David walked back to counter and handed him the bag. "Here you go Caleb."

"Thanks." Caleb said and turned away from the counter. He spotted Kate with a basket by the door to drugstore and smiled, "Hey Kate."

"Caleb." She greeted.

"What are doing out here?" He asked her.

She shrugged, "Oh just stocking up our room. Hey did you hear about the dead kid?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Did you know him?" She asked softly.

He shook his head, "No, he'd just transferred in."

She looked away, "Yeah I heard he lived on Reid and Tyler's floor."

"Oh hey Caleb!" Came Chloe's cheerful voice from behind him and he turned around. To see her with her deep brown hair tucked behind one ear. She had a hand on the light orange scarf around her neck and crossed her brown booted feet when she came to a stop in font of him.

"Chloe." He greeted her warmly, "Having a good morning?"

"Eh." She shrugged with a small grin, "Shopping is a necessary evil."

At that moment Chase jumped out at Kate from behind the rack to her left, "Boo!"

Kate laughed and smacked him lightly on the arm, "jerk! You scared me."

"Speaking of necessary evils." He heard Chloe mutter out of the corner of her mouth just loud enough for him to catch. Her tanned cheeks turned pink when he snorted in response.

Kate looked at her strangely but didn't say anything. "I'm going to see if Pogue wants to catch that new Brad Pitt flick this afternoon, who else wants to join?" She sang out the last part.

"I'll go," Chase immediately offered.

Caleb shook his head silently hoping Chloe didn't want to go, "I have to run some errands for my mother." He said.

"I already saw it." Chloe chimed in immediately after, and Caleb seized the opportunity, "You feel like running some errands?"

"Is shopping involved?" She asked him suspiciously squinting her eyes at him.

He grinned, "None at all."

"In that case…" She looked handed her basket over to Kate, "I'll see you later roomie."

Kate laughed and Caleb caught the wink and the mouthed have fun she shot at Chloe.

Chloe followed him out the door and to his silver mustang. He went around and opened the passenger door for her. She whistled, "Nice car, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised." She got in and he shut the door before going around to the driver's side. "What's that supposed to mean?" he teased her.

"Oh come on." She rolled her eyes at him, "Kate basically said you're all rich."

He pulled off the curb and started down the road towards the colony house. "Oh I see, you and Kate were talking about me." He grinned at her teasingly, feeling pleased.

She gave him a side eyed look. "Did you expect us not too?"

"No."

"Oh so you expected us to talk about you." Chloe said and he knew he was trapped, "Someone's cocky."

He laughed, "Cocky!?" he glanced over at her, "I hoped is all."

"You did huh?" she said softly and she half smiled.

He smiled and chuckled to himself, "Yeah, I did."

They drove in silence after that until they came up to the old Putnam Barn. "That's the old Putnam Barn, what's left of it anyway. This whole place for miles around is part of the original Ipswich Colony."

"That's incredible its still here." Chloe breathed, looking behind them as they passed by it.

"Yeah," Caleb agreed, "So what brought you to Spencer?"

Chloe faced forward again and adjusted herself, "Scholarship."

He half smiled since he knew that much already. "But why Spencer?"

"I had my pick of schools all across the country." She said it without being smug or arrogant, just stating it as simple fact. "But I want to go to Harvard."

He nodded thoughtfully, "My dad's class of 81."

"Really?" She tilted her head to the side.

He nodded with a smile.

"Kate uh, said he passed away." She said with her head down like she didn't want to upset him, which he was grateful for even if t was unnecessary.

He deflected the unasked question, "Talking about me again were you?"

She laughed and shook her head in exasperation, "You act just like my brother Chris."

"You have a brother?" He asked surprised even though he didn't have any reason to be, he hardly knew anything about this girl.

"Mmhm." She nodded, "Two. Wyatt and Chris. Both older and both annoying, but I love em."

"That must have been nice." Caleb said, he'd always wanted a sibling even though with the Sons it was almost like he had three. "Not growing up alone."

She laughed out loud, "Well it sure made getting away with things so much easier. I have cousins that are as close as siblings too."

He nodded his head and slowed the car to a stop in front of the fence that surrounded the old house. "That's my family's first colony house." He told Chloe as he unbuckled his seatbelt and made to step out of the car.

"Someone actually lives here?" She asked incredulously.

Opening the car door he said, "Just our caretaker, Gorman." The blast of a shotgun went off and he and Chloe both jumped.

"Who's there?" Gorman's grouching voice called out from the front door.

Caleb waved his hand with the pharmacy bag in the air, "Gorman! It's just me." He shouted.

"Who's with you?"

Caleb wanted to roll his eyes at Gorman's paranoia, "A friend." He looked down at Chloe still in the car. "Wait here, I'll be right back."

On the third floor of the old house Caleb found Gorman staring out the front window, "Caleb, you should be more careful."

"I know Gorman." Caleb said softly, "Is there anything else he needs?"

"No"

"Then I'll see you next week." Caleb paused on the first step remembering he wanted to ask Gorman a question. "Gorman, have you ever heard the name Halliwell?"

Caleb watched as Gorman's back stiffened and he turned to look at Caleb sharply, "Is that who's in the car?"

Confused Caleb nodded his head.

The caretaker let out a long sigh, "Bring her in then, it's time we had a chat."

Still confused Caleb went down the stairs and out the front door to the car. "Chloe, come on." He motioned for her to get out of the car and she did with a small frown.

"What's up?" She asked in a wary tone.

Caleb shrugged, "Gorman wants to talk to you." Her brow furrowed and she followed Caleb up to the creaking old house and up the steep steps to the third floor.

"This the girl?" Gorman asked gruffly to Caleb when he saw them, Chloe standing hesitantly just behind Caleb's left shoulder. When Caleb nodded he asked her, "What's your name girl?"

Chloe lifted her chin and stepped out from behind him, "Chloe Halliwell."

Gorman eyed her speculatively, "So it's time then is it, witch?"

Chloe's eyes widened and Caleb felt very confused. "Witch?"

She turned to Caleb quickly with a pleading expression, "Caleb, I was going to tell you I swear! I just thought I had more time, I wanted to be sure."

Feeling overwhelmed he took a half step back, "What are you talking about?"

Her shoulders dropped and she glanced at Gorman before looking back at Caleb and saying, "I'm a witch Caleb, I have magic, like you."

"How did you know?" He said feeling a little bit betrayed.

"Well," She looked at her boot clad toes and sighed, "I came to Spencer to meet you, there's a curse on the Covenant and I came here to see if you all were worth breaking it for."

"I'm confused." Caleb said and had a thought that had him glaring at Gorman, "You knew about this?"

"Caleb." Gorman started forward, "You have to understand, the curse, part of it is why the powers make you age. It was the curse that did this to your father." He gestured back towards the arm chair where a withered old man sat, hooked up to IVs and oxygen tubes.

"It's a curse?" He breathed out.

Chloe came forward and put her hand on his arm, "Yes, Caleb, but that's not the worst of it."

He focused his eyes on her watery green ones. "What could be worse than this?"

She sighed and looked at Gorman, "Can we sit down? I think I should start at the beginning."

Gorman gestured to the couch on the opposite side of the room and Chloe led Caleb there. She folded her hands in her lap while Caleb watched her, a million thoughts rushing through his brain. She sighed and gripped the material of her leggings. "Well, as you know the five founding families of the Ipswich Colony were the first families of the Covenant. What you don't know is that the reason John Putnam was cast out of the Covenant was because he attacked a witch. He came as an incubus to one of the witches in my ancestor Melinda Warren's coven. Since he not only abused his gifts and attacked one of her own and had done this before she cursed him and the rest of the Covenant. She said that since the nature of your powers was to essentially allow you to do anything that you could think of doing it allowed too great a capacity for evil. In this I think she was right, it's easy to be corrupted by power. But this curse stated that after the Charmed Ones had completed their destiny and all was right with the world, my mother is a Charmed One by the way, a witch of her line and a Son of Ipswich would be born on the same day, at the same time and then the curse would begin to reach its end. Either the Covenant and it's powers would be destroyed completely or the curse would be broken for all the generations to come."

Caleb's head was spinning as he tried to process what she just told him, "What does that mean?"

Chloe turned pink at this, "Well in the Book of Shadows, which is my family's spellbook, it says Melinda created a way to end the curse. Leaving the decision to the one of her line who was born the same day as a Son. That decision is to see if the Covenant has truly changed it's ways and become a force of good, if the girl, me, decides that yes the Covenant is deserving of having the curse unbound she must be so sure of this that she is willing to bind herself to the Son. Or when the last ascends to his full power the Covenant will end in death."

Still utterly confused Caleb waved his hand, "Meaning…"

Chloe blushed an even brighter pink and said, "To break the curse we'd have to get married. My birthday is this Saturday same as you. Or when Tyler ascends you all die."

Caleb sat in stunned silence, _married!_ His brain was screaming at him. "But we're not even eighteen yet!"

Chloe chuckled, "That's what you got out of all that? Not that if we don't get married you all die?"

Caleb spluttered, "Well that too!"

She smiled and gave him a sad smile, "Look I know this is a lot to consider, believe me I know, but I've had almost a year to think about this. My job as a good witch is to save innocents, sacrifice is part of the gig. I'm willing to do this, for you. For all of you." She gestured at his father sitting there in the armchair.

His eyes filled with tears at the implications of what she was telling him, he wouldn't have to worry about aging anymore he wouldn't have to worry about Reid killing himself everyday. "What about my father, will it heal him too?"

She nodded and then bit her lip in thought. She pushed herself off the couch, "In fact… since I've basically just decided you're worth saving I might just be able to," She didn't finish her sentence instead walking over to his father and standing over him, "I might have left out one thing, I'm half whitelighter." She held out her hands, letting them hover just over his father's heart and then they started to glow with a soft golden light. Unable to believe what he was seeing Caleb watched as his father's skin smoothed out and his hair darkened. When Chloe pulled her hands away his father looked just like he had when Caleb was a little boy.

"Dad?" He asked afraid to move in case it was just an illusion.

Caleb's father pulled the nasal cannula off of his face and smiled up at Chloe, "You extraordinary girl." He said in a voice that Caleb hadn't heard in years. Caleb and his father stood at the same time and when his father looked away from Chloe and saw Caleb standing there he crossed the room in two strides and hugged Caleb harder than he'd ever been hugged before.


	5. A Magical Connection

They had been in the old house for close to an hour when Chloe got a text from Kate saying she and Chase had just gotten out of their movie. "Caleb." Chloe called out gently.

Caleb glanced back at her with a face so full of happiness she almost hated to cut it short. "We need to go."

He tilted his head at her almost to say do we have to?

She pursed her lips in light amusement, "Yes, we have to go. Unless you want to explain to Kate how your father miraculously returned from the dead, we need to get going. She said something about Nicky's?"

Caleb sighed and got to his feet. He hugged his father tightly and said something she didn't try to hear. "I'll try to come back tomorrow."

"I'd like that." His father replied.

The dark haired boy nodded and took Chloe by the arm, "You need to get changed."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Chloe protested indignantly as she stomped down the stairs.

Caleb threw his hands up in surrender, "Nothing! Just, it gets a little hot in Nicky's."

She hopped off the last step and spun to look at her possible future husband, "And what exactly is Nicky's?"

Caleb just grinned, teasing her with his silence. "Fine, be that way." She huffed intent on ignoring him for the foreseeable future, which in her family's case could mean a very long time. She walked ahead of him on the long lawn in front of the colony house and shrieked when he unexpectedly swung her into his arms. "Caleb! Put me down!"

"Hmm no." He kept walking as if she weighed nothing at all. "Ow!" He said when she hit him in the chest with her fist.

"Put me down, now!" She demanded, feigning anger but really feeling pleased that he was showing his playful side. He ignored her protests until he got to the car and then he dropped her unceremoniously into her seat. "Hey!"

"You asked me to put you down." He reminded her with a sly grin.

"On my feet!"

He just continued to smile at her and then it softened and turned fond. "Do you even know how grateful I am to you?"

Suddenly feeling awkward and embarrassed, she ducked her head and felt her skin turn pink. His hand on her shoulder had her glancing up at him, his face was so openly grateful. "I mean it, if it weren't for you I never would have had the chance to see my father like that again. Even without that, if you had stayed home, we would have all died without knowing why." His hand moved up to cup her cheek and unconsciously she leaned into it. "You didn't even have to come here, why did you?"

She half smiled, "It is what we do. Besides how could I not, I couldn't just leave you all here to die without even thinking about it, but are you sure about this? I mean I've had time to come to terms with this, I don't want you to feel like I hijacked your life out of nowhere demanding you marry me or die."

Caleb was shaking his head before she'd even finished talking. "No, no I don't think that at all." Turning his body to face hers he took her hand with his free one. "Chloe, I'd sacrifice my happiness in a heartbeat to protect the people that I love."

Her heart sinking Chloe breathed, "Oh."

Caleb gripped her hand tightly, "No! That's not what I meant!" He let out a frustrated noise and pulled his hand away from her face to run it through his hair. "I don't think I'd be sacrificing my happiness by marrying you, not at all, I've only know you for two days and I can say that much. I just meant that you could be a horrible hag and if it meant saving my family I'd still marry you. You just have to understand, before when I thought about marriage it was only with someone I really loved. I never wanted to continue this cycle of pain our powers bring, to make me even consider marriage I wanted to be 1,000% percent sure I loved a girl. And… I'm sorry I just don't love you, not yet, because believe me I'm sure I will."

Now feeling like she was the one thrown out of whack Chloe nodded. "I understand." She told him and she did, really, "I mean when I thought about my wedding I always thought I'd be done with college and settled, not 18 and with a man I barely know. I feel like I shouldn't complain, I mean I signed up for this I came here knowing there was a real possibility I'd come home bringing a fiancé to meet the family. This just didn't feel real until I'd met you and seen what a great guy you are, and I know this isn't the life I think either of us would have chosen…" She let the sentence hang off unsure of what else she could say.

"But I'm glad I got to meet you." Caleb finished for her.

Her eyes wide and wet she nodded, "Yeah."

He stared at her for a moment like he was searching for something in her face before leaning in slowly and kissing her. Her eyes slid shut and his mouth was on hers, soft and warm. He kissed her slowly keeping it chaste and it was enough. It made her heart melt and when he pulled away they were both smiling. She looked up at him and his eyes were so dark they were almost black filled with an emotion she couldn't place. "We should go." He said and she agreed, pulling back into her seat and buckling her seatbelt.

He started the car and turned it around before reaching over and taking her hand in hers without looking at her. Feeling like it was too quiet she reached out and started to fiddle with his preset stations, scrunching her face in disgust at his music choices. "You can't seriously tell me you like this stuff!"

"What's wrong with my music?"

"It's crap!" She turned onto random stations, searching for the one she and Kate had playing in the dorm. The rest of the drive passed by quickly as they talked, trying to learn more about each other. She listened as he laughed about the antics the boys had gotten into as kids and he constantly was asking questions about life in San Francisco. She told him about all the different powers people in her family have, far too many for him to keep straight. She told him about her powers: the ability to heal, freeze things and people, blow things up, move things with her mind and orb. Her brother Wyatt who could do all the things that she could and more, things like creating fire and protective shields. Chris, while having a smaller number of powers was just as powerful as Chloe maybe even more so, he was much better at potion making, has more knowledge of spells and demon lore, at times he could even change objects into something else and his telekinesis was much stronger than hers.


	6. A Collection of Spellbooks

When they got to the dorms Caleb followed Chloe up to her room and waited at her desk while she shuffled around her clothes trying to decide what to wear. Looking around at the objects scattered on her desk he noticed a photo album with the triquatra on the cover. When he touched it the symbol glowed orange and then faded back to muted gold. “What did I do?” He called over his shoulder at the short dark haired girl.  
“Don’t worry, it’s just a spell that only allows magical people to see some of the pictures.” She told him gathering a bundle of clothes and taking them into the bathroom. “You can go ahead and look”  
He took her approval and opened it up, on the front page in a curvy script it read, A Charmed Life. He flipped over the next page to find a picture of a man and a woman he assumed were Chloe’s parents. He could see Chloe in her mom’s smile and the shape of her father’s eyes. The next picture featured three children, a blonde boy who looked about 5 or 6 a younger boy with dark hair and a baby girl in a green dress and bow. The next series of photos showed the siblings in various stages of growth along with Chloe’s parents and two other women who resembled Chloe’s mom. One picture that looked to only be a few years old showed Chloe with her hands thrown out at Wyatt who was half swirling lights and Chris who was ducking down behind Wyatt as a vase was in mid explosion. He assumed this was one of the pictures only a few could see. There was even a picture of the three of them huddled around a cauldron, Chris was holding a stirring stick and Chloe was dropping in some herb Caleb didn’t recognize and Wyatt had his finger on a giant book.  
“You guys have a book too right?” Chloe’s voice startled him, not realizing she was standing right behind him.  
“Yeah, the Book of Damnation.” He told her.  
“Ooooo creepy.” He could hear her rolling her eyes, “I swear they name these things by trying to be dramatic. Ours is the Book of Shadows.” He turned around to look at her and paused, she was beautiful. She’d gone simple with a loose fitting white and blue striped t shirt tucked into a pair of cutoff shorts with a brown belt and had exchanged her winter footwear with a pair of scuffed short cowboy boots. With her dark loose hair and tanned legs she radiated warmth and the California sun, which was striking in the cold east coast. He tried to make his mouth work but it wouldn’t cooperate with him, “You uh, you should gr-grab a jacket.” He stuttered out, feeling like a love struck idiot.  
She snorted, “Already ahead of you.” She threw the strap of her bag around her neck and picked up a navy blue sweater and her cell phone. “You ready?” He nodded and breathed an internal sigh of relief that she didn’t comment on his stutter. She walked past him still sitting at the desk and walked out the door, leaving it open for him to follow. “Come on Forest, run” She called when she was out of sight. He snorting thinking he should have known better and followed after her. She laughed when she looked back and saw him behind her and that more than anything made him grin and say, “You better run.”  
She smirked and took off down the hall her booted footsteps echoing loudly. He chased after her while she laughed loudly and didn’t catch up to her until they got to the stairs where she waited for him breathing heavily and sporting a wide grin. “Nice running Forest.” She breathed as he stepped in closer, forcing her back into the wall. She leaned her head against it to look up at him and before he could stop himself he kissed her. For real this time, with one hand snaking around her waist to pull her small body up against his and his other tangling itself in her hair. He kissed her until the sound of giggling freshmen girls had him pull away gasping for air. “Wow.” She whispered.  
“Yeah” He agreed, resting his forehead against hers, his fingers released her hair and slipped down to rest with his thumb on her collar bone. He could feel the rise and fall of her chest against his hand. She trailed her hands up from his hips to push against his chest, “We’re going to be late.”  
“I don’t care.”  
She groaned, “You are such a guy.” Her hand came up to take his wrist and draw him with her down the steps. “Come on lover boy.”


	7. Freezing Witches

Kate, Chase, Chloe and Caleb sat at table inside Nicky’s waiting for Pogue. They were having a good time except from the fact that Chloe couldn’t look at Chase without having a chill go down her back, Caleb didn’t seem to have a problem. Although he did pick up on her resistance and tried to ease it by steering the conversation towards harmless topics. Chloe was in the midst of gasping for air in laughter as she told a story about how her brother Chris had once brought some pot home and was smoking it when their mom was out.  And he’d had an allergic reaction to it, that Caleb was sure had stemmed from some magical mixture of weed and herbs, that had him covered in itching hives and he was forced to call their mother and explain when Pogue showed up. Kate was cracking up she saw Pogue and had to wait for her giggles to subside before she could greet her boyfriend.

“Oh hey baby,” She kissed him, “You missed a great movie.”

Pogue leaned forward and shrugged out of his jacket, “Yeah I had to get my bike fixed.”

“Oh don’t worry,” Kate told him waving her hand, “Chase hung out and kept me company.”

Pogue threw Chase a half accusing glare, “I’ll just bet he did.”

Kate frowned and Chloe winced in friendly sympathy, even though she did agree with Pogue’s assessment of Chase. “You want something to eat?”

Kate brought her smile back when she answered, “Yeah I’ll just pick at whatever you’re having.”

Pogue hung his jacket over the spare chair and went up to the bar to order. Kate shared a meaningful glance with Chloe and all Chloe could do was shrug. Having a jealous boyfriend was not easy. Chloe was about to ask Kate about the next morning’s first class when Chase challenged Caleb to a game of foosball. Caleb agreed and kissed Chloe’s cheek when he got up. He went with Chase and Chloe had to look at Kate’s satisfied expression. “What?”

“So you and Caleb seem to be hitting it off.” Kate grinned suggestively.

Chloe turned pink and shrugged, “Yeah we learned a lot about each other today.”

Kate tilted her head and pursed her lips, “Spill.”

Chloe sighed and gave into the compulsion to talk like a normal high school girl for a moment. “Fine, he might have kissed me a little.”

“A little! Define a little.” Kate leaned forward like Chloe was about to spill some huge secret.

“Okay twice.” Her friend’s delighted squeal had her smiling and the gesture to continue was understood. “Well first in the car outside his house, but that was barely anything. The real one came on the way here.”

“Ah! I knew it! That’s why you were late.” Kate was practically vibrating with glee. “Details!”

Chloe laughed, “Okay, okay. When we were leaving the dorm room he stuttered so when I was out the door in front of him I told him to ‘Come on Forest’” Kate laughed appropriately and Chloe could tell she was dying to ask what made the unflappable Caleb Danvers stutter but she held it in. “When he shut the door behind himself he told me I better run, so I did and he caught up with me at the stairs and before I knew it my back was against the wall and we were going at it.”

Kate did a little dance in her seat, “That is so hot.” She laughed, “Ah I wish it was still like that with Po, he just gets so jealous.”

Chloe nodded sympathetically, “Not to defend him or anything but I can see where he’s coming from where Chase is concerned.”

“Why?” Kate asked genuinely confused.

Chloe made a face, “I don’t know there’s just something about the guy, doesn’t feel right.”

“Hmm” Kate said but Chloe could tell she didn’t take it seriously.

“Okay what’s the deal?”

Kate shook her head confused, “With what?”

“Well, we should all be together having fun.”

Her roomie shrugged, “You know boy and their toys.”

Chloe smirked an idea coming to mind, “We’ll see about that.” She got out of her seat and fished in her bag for a quarter. She held it up in front of her nose with an impish expression and Kate laughed.

“You go girl.” And Chloe did, she went over to the jukebox and picked a dancing song, one her Aunt Phoebe liked to play when she was in a rocking mood.

The song came blaring over the speakers and Chloe grinned, with a glance over a Kate she headed over to Caleb who looked up when she grabbed his hand, “Come on, we’re dancing.”

He grinned at her and threw an apologetic glance over his shoulder at Pogue who just laughed it off and went over to his girlfriend. “I’m not a good dancer” Caleb warned her and she scoffed.

“And you think I am?” His hand went to her hip as they rolled and moved with the music. She swiveled her hips and Caleb went with her, they were both grinning and just getting into when a loud crash and the sounds of a starting fight reached their ears. When she looked behind her she saw Reid shove Aaron and face off against him. They started moving towards the back door when Caleb called over to Pogue, “Hey it’s Reid and Tyler, grab my jacket.” Caleb let go of her hand to reach for the jacket Pogue handed him as Chase asked, “Hey you guys need some help.”

“Naw man, just stay with the girls.” Pogue said as he got closer to Chloe. She snorted and started to follow Caleb to the door. “Caleb.” Pogue called, his tone conveying his concern for her involvement in a potentially magical situation. Not that Pogue had any inkling that she knew of course.

“No it’s ok.” Caleb reassured him and kept going to the door she could hear unintelligible voice saying something in a nasty tone before Caleb shouted going down the steps, “What’s the problem?”

“None of your damn business.” Aaron sneered and Chloe had enough. With a twist of both her wrists she froze all seven boys.

“Oh boy,” she sighed and with her right hand and an elegant twist of the wrist she unfroze the sons of the Covenant.

“He bet-“ Reid started with a step towards the frozen forms of Aaron and his lackeys. “What the hell?” He gasped and she heard similar exclamations from Po and Tyler.

Caleb rolled his head around to look at her standing behind him and Pogue on the steps. “Really Clo?”

“What?” She asked indignantly, “It was about to get messy, and it’s as good a time as any.” He threw his hands up in exasperation and looked back to the boys frozen in place.

“How’d you-?” Pogue started to ask her but she cut him off.

“I’m a witch, we’ll explain everything later. Now what’s the problem?” She looked at Reid expectantly.

After a glance at Caleb he told them, “This dickhead bet me I couldn’t make a shot and I did.”

“Let me guess, have a little help?” She wiggled her fingers by her ear to mime magic.

Reid took a step towards her when he replied, “No, what’re you-“

Caleb rolled his eyes at his friend, “Save it Reid she knows.”

“You told her!?” Po started in angrily.

“No she,” Caleb started, “already knew.” Chloe finished for him. “Now let’s get back to business, get back to your places before they unfreeze and Reid start talking.”

“Bossy” Reid muttered but did as she asked, Tyler followed still wide eyed and confused.

“Ok.” Chloe said and unfroze the bunch, just like they’d let off Reid finished the sentence he’d originally started.

“Bet me I couldn’t make a combo shot and, I did.” He said with, from what she had seen so far, his typical flare for the smug and dramatic.

“Why don’t we just forget about it, ok” Caleb tried to pacify Aaron and his goons since during the time she’d unfrozen Reid, he’d had time to calm down a bit over the bet.

“Hey!” Nicky’s voice came from behind Chloe and she turned around to see a big angry man with a baseball bat. She hurried down the last two steps to get out of his way. “Take it someplace else ladies, now!”

“Whatever you say Nicky.” Aaron said, as usual backing away from fights he’d started and didn’t want to finish. He and his friends pushed through the Sons and walked off down the alley towards the street.

When the door to the bar was shut and Aaron and his friends were gone Caleb turned to Reid shaking his head, “What were you thinking?”

“We were just playing them.” Reid defended.

Tyler chose that moment to start in on it too, “Yeah, come on Caleb, they were suckers for it.”

“Why don’t you stop being a pussy and pull that stick out of your ass.” Reid tried to push by Caleb but Caleb stopped him with a hand to the shoulder.

“I’m not finished with you yet.” Caleb said and Reid gripped his wrist, his eyes going black and the veins in Caleb’s hand popped out of his skin.

Chloe started forward to help but Pogue stopped her with a hand around her waist, “He’s got this.” She glanced up at him but he was too busy watching as Caleb threw Reid off in a burst of power that had the blonde boy slamming into the wall.

“What will it take for you to get it? It’s addictive you moron! You’ve seen what it can do if you abuse it if you want that it’s your business, but if you use it out in the open like you did tonight you risk exposing us all. And that, I won’t let happen.” Reid got to his feet and started to raise one of the kegs lined up outside with his powers.

“My power’s greater than yours.” Caleb told him.

Without looking up Reid said, “Not until you ascend.”

“Alright then go for it tough guy.” Caleb said lifting his hands in a come at me gesture. Reid rose to the challenge and the barrel went flying towards Caleb but he deflected it with barely any effort and sent Reid soaring back into the stacks of empty beer bottles. Caleb started to stalk toward him but Pogue launched forward and held Caleb back. “Stop it! This is crazy!”

“It’s for his own good.” Caleb growled and Chloe was surprised by the anger in his voice. “If you keep using like you did tonight like you did last night!”

Reid shrugged Tyler off and made his way towards Caleb. “So I fixed her car big deal!” Chloe felt a guilty twinge about that.

“Don’t play me Reid, I’m talking later and you know it!” Caleb tried to push Pogue off and failed.

“The hell I do!” Reid complained, “I didn’t use later.” He pushed past Pogue and Caleb and they let him go.

“It’s not right using on each other Caleb.” Tyler said earnestly.

Caleb scoffed, “Ya tell it to Reid.”

The youngest son sighed and made to go back inside after Reid, “Tyler wait.” Chloe called, stopping him. She looked over at Caleb, “We need to tell them, tonight. Do you have somewhere we can go?”

Caleb turned to look at her, “Yeah, Tyler get Reid and meet us at the Book. Now.”

Shaking his head Tyler sighed, “He won’t come.”

“Then trick him, tell him you need to get a spell from the Book, I don’t know just get him there.” Chloe cut in.

Tyler nodded before going back inside.

When the door swung shut Caleb ran his fingers through his hair, “Reid’s lying it had to be him.”

“How do you know?” Pogue asked him quietly.

“Because it wasn’t you, and Tyler doesn’t have the balls to lie to me.”

Chloe huffed slightly impatiently and waited until they turned to look at her, “What are you talking about?”

He walked towards her and took her hand, “I’ll explain on the way, we should get there first.”


	8. History of Magic

Caleb just wanted this day to be over with already. The day had started off horrible when he’d been woken up in the middle of the night by a blast of power. The rest of the day had been a rollercoaster as well, Chloe had dropped a huge bomb on him, his father had miraculously been revived and then Reid had to go and pull another one of his stupid stunts. He sighed and squinted tired eyes at the road in front of him.

“So you’re telling me that someone used enough power to wake you from a dead sleep and then you were sent the magical equivalent of a jack in the box but you have no idea who?” Chloe asked.

“Well, I’m pretty damn sure it was Reid but,” Caleb scratched his head, “he’s not one to pull a stunt like this and then just keep quiet about it. Something weird is definitely happening around here.”

He caught Chloe’s frown out of the corner of his eye, “Are you sure it was Covenant power you felt, I mean you’re sure it wasn’t a warlock or demon?”

“No it was definitely the Covenant.”

Chloe stayed quiet and he could tell she was working up to saying something. He let her be and focused on trying to keep his eyes open.

“What if,” Chloe shook her head, “Nevermind.”

Caleb wanted to smile but he held it in, “What?”

Chloe let out a huge sigh and twisted in her seat so she was looking at him straight on, glanced at her and saw her eyes were very bright in the darkness. “Are you completely sure the fifth family is gone?” She asked him her voice deathly serious and quiet. Well, he wasn’t expecting her to ask him that.

“No, the fifth family is gone it was destroyed a long time ago.” He said but he knew he sounded far from sure. “There’s no way, John Putnam died without a child.”

Chloe titled her head, “He came as an incubus to at least one woman, can we ever really know that there aren’t any more we’ve never heard of?”

“There was one.” Caleb said thoughtfully. “But we’ll have to think about this later, we have more important news to deliver.”

The girl in the seat next to him took a deep breath. “You’re right. This should be fun.” Her voice was sarcastic and he snorted in response and pulled off the main road and onto the path that lead to the birthplace of the Covenant. On the surface it looked like a decaying shack built against a boulder, which really it was, but inside there were stairs cut into the rock that led down into a secret room.

“This is where you keep your book?” Chloe said disbelievingly, “Really?”

Getting out of the car he smirked, “Don’t be fooled, it just looks like a pile of moldy wood.”

Chloe got out of the car and turned around to look at the headlight coming out of the trees. Pogue slowed his bike to a roll and stopped. He took off his helmet and shook his hair out before walking over to them.

“We should get inside.” Caleb said, “Reid will be hard enough to get out of the car when he sees my car here won’t get out at all if we’re standing here.”

He held out his hand to Chloe and she took it, her fingers cold in his. He led her to the shack and pushed open the door the hinges squeaked in protest. Ducking his head he went inside and turned his gaze to the rock wall, he pushed a spot just below eye level and a section of the rock fell away to reveal an iron gate lit up by torchlight.

“How?” Chloe breathed and Caleb looked down at her wide eyed expression.

“Magic.” She rolled her eyes at this reached out her own hand to push the wrought iron open. She glanced back at him uncertainly and he gestured for her to go on down. “Watch your step.”

The light of the torches lit the way down into the book room.

“Geez, do you guys try to be creepy or does it just come naturally!” Chloe called up to them and Pogue smirked. “The candles really set the _mood_ …”

When they got to the bottom he saw Chloe standing in the center of the room appreciatively eyeing the bookshelf. “May I?” She asked and Caleb nodded his permission.

She went over to the case and ran her finger over the spines of a few books before she pulled out one. “We don’t have this one.” Chloe commented, “Incredible, this is about my ancestor and her coven.”

Caleb’s brows lifted in surprise, “Really?” He went over to her to look over her shoulder at the book.

“Yeah, it details the five years before she was burnt at the stake.” Chloe looked up at Caleb, “Can I borrow this?”

He looked up to Pogue for permission and the other man shrugged, “Yeah go ahead, I read it but it’s been years. Must be where I recognized your name from.”

“Must be, it probably doesn’t mention the curse or you wouldn’t have looked so shocked.”

“What curse?” Pogue asked just when the grate clanged above them and he shot a glance at Pogue.

“Why the hell am I here?” Reid shouted as he stomped down the steps. When he got to the bottom and lifted his eyebrows and hands for an answer Chloe stepped forward.

She pushed her shoulders back and Caleb couldn’t help but feel proud as she squared off in front of Reid. “I have a story you need to hear.”

“You brought me out here for a bedtime story?” Reid scoffed but Caleb could hear the underlying wariness in his tone.

“Not exactly, sit.” She gestured to all of them and they did as she asked sitting in their usual spots. She took the seat meant for the fifth son and looked at her hands. “I know most of you don’t want to be here right now but what I have to say concerns all of you, you should get a say in what happens.”

Caleb felt a jolt in his chest at her words and opened his moth to protest but she stopped him before he could speak. “They do Caleb.”

“September 2nd 1962\. A member of the Covenant by the name of John Putnam came as an incubus to a witch named Clarissa Richardson. He enchanted her and then raped her before escaping before she woke in the morning. Clarissa belonged to a strong coven of good witches, one of them was my ancestor Melinda Warren. My ancestor’s coven knew about the Covenant and their powers, knew that the powers were used for personal gain more than the good of others.” She looked at all of them evenly, “I don’t know if you are aware, but there are laws to magic other than the ones that bind the Covenant. Good witches, which the members of the Covenant are supposed to be, are not allowed to use magic to hurt or enchant others and they cannot use magic for personal gain. These laws bind all good magic and when they are broken there are consequences. Sometimes the witch will go dark and other times the spells will backfire on them.”

“John Putnam was no different, his history of raping women had turned him. The magic inside of him that was supposed to be used only for good had been used to harm. Melinda and her coven realized that due to the vast nature of your powers there was a great capacity for evil. After Clarissa was attacked the coven decided that the powers could no longer be left unchecked. So Melinda cast a spell. The spell was designed to lessen the amount of evil that could be done by these powers, your powers. The powers that from which evil could be created would be your undoing, until such time the curse could be lifted. This is the reason your powers age you, because many who have such power will abuse it. Yet this, the aging is only the beginning.” Chloe paused to gauge their reactions. Caleb looked at her with respect before looking at the rest of the sons. Predictably Reid was angry, no he looked furious. Baby boy just looked stunned and Pogue was hard to read, he looked thoughtful but Caleb could sense the emotion welling inside him.

“Tell us the rest.” Tyler said quietly and Chloe nodded.

She licked her lips and continued on. “My ancestor believed that a day would come when the world would be ready for powers such as yours to be released. She knew that in the future her line would produce three sisters, who together would become the greatest force of good magic the world has ever known and ever will know. The Charmed Ones. Within the curse she created a failsafe, that when the Charmed Ones had completed their destiny and destroyed the greatest evil, and the world would not be in danger from a potential force of evil, then the curse could be ended. But she had conditions, this curse could only end when a witch of her line and a son of the Covenant entered the world in the same instant.” She looked over to Caleb, “Those two are Caleb and myself.”

“So you’re saying the curse is broken? We won’t age?” Pogue asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

Chloe sighed and Caleb just wanted to hug her in this instant. “Not quite, the curse isn’t broken not yet.” She looked at her clasped hands for a moment before starting again. “Although Melinda set the curse so that if it was broken it would happen in a time that could handle a shift in the balance of good and evil she did not want any generations to come to have to face that threat. She wanted the witch to break her curse be so sure that the Covenant would once again become a force for good that she would be willing to bind herself forever to the Son that shared her time of birth. If the witch did not believe the Sons worthy of such unlimited power she would have to do nothing and then when the last son ascended the lines would be ended, permanently.”

Reid narrowed his eyes and looked directly at Chloe, “What are you saying?”

Caleb took a deep breath and stood before Chloe could answer, “What she’s saying is, that if she and I don’t get married before Tyler ascends we will all die.”

“So you’re getting _married_?” Tyler asked in a voice so high it was almost a squeak.

He glanced over at Chloe and she stood, tugging her blue sweater around herself, “That’s up to you four to decide. I’ve already discussed it with Caleb and I’m willing to do it so long as you promise me you’ll follow the rules of good magic.” She gestured towards the stairs, “I’ll leave you alone to talk, Caleb I’ll be in the car.”

He nodded and she turned and went up the stairs, her footsteps echoing in the chamber. When she was gone Caleb sighed and half fell back into his seat. He rested his head in his hands and wished he could just go home.

“Well that was interesting.” Reid commented sarcastically.

Tyler for once didn’t follow Reid’s lead, “Lay off Reid, this is huge.” The youngest Son caught Caleb’s eye. “You’re going to do it right?”

Caleb let out a low chuckle. “Unless you have a reason I shouldn’t”

“You don’t have to do this Caleb.” Pogue said softly.

Reid shot out of his seat, “The hell he doesn’t, this curse will kill us all if he doesn’t, and I for one plan on living a long time.”

Caleb smiled, he should have expected something like that from Reid.

“Don’t be selfish.” Tyler reprimanded him, “I don’t want to die either but marriage is a big deal.”

The blonde boy scoffed, “No it isn’t people get married and divorced all the time, what’s such a big deal. He can marry her and then divorce her the next day.”

“Did you happen to miss the forever part?” Pogue growled. “This is Caleb’s decision not yours if he doesn’t want to marry her he doesn’t have to.”

“But I do.” Caleb told them, “I do have to do this, because if I don’t I’ll feel guilty every single day until Tyler turns eighteen. Besides I’m half in love with the girl anyways.” Caleb joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

It didn’t work, the other three sons were silent as they looked at him. Reid looked like he always did smug and confident, and Tyler who wore his heart on his sleeve looked at Caleb like his puppy just died. Pogue though, his face was closed off like he didn’t want anyone to know what he was thinking, and Caleb was probably the only one in the world who could tell that Pogue was feeling guilty. It wasn’t hard to guess why, Pogue had always been the one with a girlfriend and not girlfriends like Reid seemed to exchange everyday like bits of clothing. No Pogue loved, he loved Kate and the Covenant was a weight on his shoulders because he couldn’t bear to tell Kate the truth, he didn’t want to put her through the pain all their mothers had gone through. That’s why he always acted like the jealous boyfriend, because since he could never be truly honest with the girl he loved he was always terrified someone normal would come along and snatch her away, taking with them the only normal thing in his life.

“So it’s settled then.” Caleb said standing back up, “I guess I better go and inform my new fiancé.” Saying the word aloud threw him back a step, it felt strange to say the word in relation to himself and he was surprised by the spot of warmth in his chest when he’d said it. Fiancé, he thought, wow.

Reid grinned and clapped his hands together, “This is great, we don’t have to worry about using our powers anymore!”

“Not so fast, there are rules we’ll have to follow now.” Caleb warned before Reid got ahead of himself.

“Pshh. So what!” Reid said as they all followed him up the stairs. Coming up last Tyler shut the gate and pushed the spot on the wall that had the rock coming together once more.

When Chloe saw them coming out of the shack she exited Caleb’s mustang and tucked her hands in her pockets nervously like she was waiting for a guilty verdict. “Well?”

“Welcome to the family!” Reid crowed crossing the last few steps and swinging Chloe around in a hug. He set her down and Caleb noticed her glance at Reid was a little disturbed. Reid started to enthusiastically hum here comes the bride and Chloe turned red.

Feeling like he should make at least some of an effort to make this a little more normal Caleb went up to Chloe and took her hand, “So what do you say? Will you marry me?” He grinned down at her.

She half smiled and tilted her head, “I suppose.” She said teasingly.

“Thank you.” He said softly and she smiled not needing to say anything in response.

She then turned away from him to look at Tyler, “Hey baby boy! Please tell me you’re just a really young senior and still 16.”

The youngest son grinned, “You’re in luck. I won’t ascend until next October.”

“Oh thank god!” Chloe laughed and the sons joined her. And in that moment Caleb thought, everything is going to be just fine.


	9. Sleep is its Own Kind of Magic

Chloe sank into her seat at the start of her first class bright and early Monday morning. Still exhausted from the drama of the day before she slumped forward to rest her head on the desk. “Bad hangover?” Reid’s to perky voice asked her.

“Screw you.” She groaned, not even bothering to open her eyes.

“Aw what’s the matter sis? No sleep last night, too busy sealing the deal?”

She blew air out of her nose in an angry hiss before lifting her head to glare at Reid, “Keep your voice down, and for your information yes I got no sleep last night and no there was no deal sealing.” She made to rest her head back down but stopped to point a finger at Reid. “And don’t call me sis.”

Reid raised his hands in mock defense, “Woah, chill out crazy. Lighten up we’re family now.” He grinned and she could tell he was doing it just to rile her up.

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah sure Reid. Just don’t say anything when you’re in public ok? The last thing I need is to have to explain this to a bunch of preppy teenagers.”

The blonde boy smirked, “Whatever you say boss.”

Chloe fought back a groan and glanced to her right grateful that Kate was too preoccupied with Pogue to have heard anything they said. Hearing a bag thump down on the bench to her left she turned to see who it was and smiled when she recognized Caleb.

“Hey.” He smiled at her warmly, “Rough night?”

Chloe rubbed her eyes and sat up to lean back into her seat, “Hey, yeah I had nightmares.”

Her new fiancé frowned sympathetically, “What about?”

“Spiders.” Chloe sighed, “Pretty weird actually, I don’t like spiders but I’m not afraid of them.”

Caleb’s face was serious, “When you say spiders do you mean like monster movie spiders or...?”

Confused as to why he was asking she shook her head, “No just run of the mill creepy spiders, but in my dreams there are hundreds of them crawling all over me, one even went up Kate’s nose.” She shivered in disgust, “I can never look at a spider the same way again.”

Caleb’s face went still and she touched his arm, “What is it?” she asked in genuine concern.

He opened his mouth to respond when the professor came through the door and started to address the class, Caleb glanced at her and said, “I’m not sure, we’ll talk about it later.”

She nodded her head in acceptance and opened her bag to pull out her book and supplies, settling in for a class she really wasn’t in the mood for.

~

Chloe didn’t get the chance to talk to Caleb after class since he was called up to the Provost’s office. She didn’t have him in any of her other classes that day so she spent the rest of the school day trying to stay awake. Kate had to prod her with her pen a couple of times to keep her from drifting off. “What is up with you today?” Kate asked her when they were walking back to the dorms.

“I’m sorry.” Chloe said in a tone that bordered on whiny. “I didn’t get in until late and then I slept horrible, I was having nightmares.”

Kate made a face, “That sucks.” She said and a moment later her eyes lit up, “Speaking of coming in late! What happened with you and Caleb last night?”

Chloe blushed and thought, besides the fact that we’re  
engaged now? “Nothing, when we left Nicky’s we went to get gas and we ended up sitting there in the parking lot for a couple of hours just talking.” It was a pretty lame lie and she knew it, but she hadn’t thought to think of an excuse to give Kate.

“Uh huh. Sure” Kate grinned suggestively.

“What!” Chloe practically yelped, “Nothing happened.”

Kate gave her a very disbelieving look, “No one just talks!”

“Well we did,” Chloe told her, which was actually kind of true, it just wasn’t only her and Caleb doing the talking. “It was nice, he drove me back to the dorms, kissed me goodnight and that was it.”

“Ok, I’ll believe you, for now.” Kate warned, “But I’m getting this story out of you some day.”

“I’m sure you will.” Chloe said to herself, low enough the Kate couldn’t hear her over the wind. They trudged up the steps into their building and made their way to their floor. After Kate unlocked the door Chloe practically flew onto her bed. “Goodnight!” She chirped and Kate laughed.

Chloe pulled herself up and put her things onto her desk and took off all her outerwear. She changed out of her school uniform and into one of her many loose cut t-shirts and sleep pants. “Seriously,” She told Kate, “I’m taking a nap.”

“Ok.” Kate said with a half smile, “Have a good one.”

“I will,” She moaned into her pillow and she was out.


	10. The Magic is in the Details

Caleb checked his watch at 6:15 and frowned, he was supposed to be taking Chloe to dinner but he hadn’t heard anything from her all day. Picking up his phone her pulled her up in his contacts and pressed call. The phone rang several times before a groggy voice answered. “Hello?”

Caleb chuckled, no wonder. “Chloe? Were you sleeping?”

“Yes.” She said her voice sounded half annoyed before she gasped, “What time is it! We were supposed to go to dinner!”

“Don’t worry its only a quarter after six.” He reassured her.

He heard shuffling on the other end of the line, “Right ok, well come on over I’ll start getting ready.”

“Don’t rush,” He told her, “I’m just leaving my house.”

Chloe was silent for a moment before she said, “Don’t bother.” Caleb almost dropped his phone when she appeared in front of him in a mass of shimmering white lights. “I’ll pick you up.” She grinned and Caleb laughed.

“Works for me.” He told her, hanging up the phone. “Nice pants.” He gestured at her lime green Tinker Bell sleep pants.

“Shut up.” She punched him in the shoulder and then held out her hand. “Come on, Kate just went out we have to go before she gets back.”

He took her outstretched hand a felt his world turn upside down. When they emerged in Chloe’s dorm room Caleb fought to keep his stomach where it was. “Sorry” She told him apologetically, “Takes some getting used to. I puked my first time.”

“I’m trying not to.” Caleb said honestly. Chloe half grinned and made her chair move directly behind him. He sat down gratefully and shook his head to clear it.

“So,” Chloe started while she stared at her closet, “Where are you taking me?”

“What do you feel like?” Caleb asked her, recovered from his bout of nausea.

Chloe bit her lip and thought on it for a moment, “I’m really missing Mexican.”

“Then change slow!” He teased her, “The closest Mexican is a half hour away.”

“I’m going, I’m going!” She defended, deciding on her clothes and taking them into her bathroom.

When she came out a few minutes later she was pulling her short hair into a loose ponytail and had on a gray long sleeved shirt that cinched at the waist and fell to the tops of her thighs with black leggings. With her hair back she sat on the edge of her bed and pulled on a pair of tall tan UGG boots. “Ok I’m ready. I’ll leave a note for Kate and we can go.”

He waited until she had written the note and found her bag and car keys before standing up and opening the door. He gestured for her to go before him and then followed her out the door. When he shut it behind him she tucked the note into the clip on the door.

They walked to the student parking lot in companionable silence, Chloe swinging her lanyard of keys back and forth. When they got to the car Caleb used his powers to pull the keys into his own hand.

“Hey!” Chloe protested reaching out to take them back.

Caleb held them over his head and laughed, “I’ll drive.”

Chloe rolled her eyes and kept her hand held out waiting, “Um no. It’s my car!”

Caleb leaned his head forward teasing her in a way that reminded her of her brother Chris. “And I know where we’re going.”

She stared at him for a moment before giving up and gestured with a sweep of her left hand for him to unlock the car. He flashed her a grin of his perfect white teeth and opened the car, while he got in the driver’s seat she went around the car and opened the door. Feeling awkward in the passenger seat of her own car she sighed and put on her seat belt. When he started up the car she turned up the volume of her radio and sat back in her seat.

When they pulled up to the restaurant Caleb turned the car off and stopped her before she got out of the car. “Is there something wrong?” He asked her softly.

“No!” She responded immediately, too fast for it to be the truth.

Caleb sighed and ducked his head, “Chloe,” He reached out and took her hand with was small and clammy in his, “I understand, I’m confused too. This is happening so fast and it’s all so surreal,” he paused looking up to catch her eyes which were filled with tears. “if you need some space all you have to do is ask.”

She starting shaking her head before he was finished, “No, I don’t need space.” She made a frustrated face, “I need, to get to know you, all four of you. And you need to know me, really know me. We..” She hesitated and looked up at him through dark lashes. “we need to go to San Francisco.”

For a moment he was confused and I’m sure his face showed it, and then he remembered, her family was in San Francisco. Her parents and brothers, and oh god her _father._ “Oh.” He was ashamed to know that it came out as more of a squeak than anything.

She gave him a half smile, “Yeah, you need to meet my family, but first I need to meet your mom.”

He winced at that, “Are you sure, I think it’s best if we wait on that one. Mother can be… difficult.”

Chloe laughed, “Well then for now let’s just have a nice date, we’ll work the rest out later.”

They did have a nice date, Caleb thought after Chloe had orbed him back to his house. He’d learned a lot about her in the two hours they spent together after going inside the restaurant. He learned that; she had a dirty and immature sense of humor, which to be honest wasn’t surprising considering she has two older brothers, she, despite the supernatural nature of her life, loved fantasy and science fiction movies. He also noticed that she wrinkled her nose when she laughed and hid behind her hand like she was embarrassed, she ate with her left hand even though she wrote with her right. Knowing more would come with time but for one night he thought it was good progress.

He sighed, even though he’d told Chloe to wait on meeting his mother he still needed to talk to the woman. Caleb felt guilty holding out on her that his father was young and whole again, and he was sure his father was chafing in that old house. Caleb glanced up towards the entrance to his father’s study where his mother liked to spend her nights and sure enough there was a faint glow spilling out into the hall. Well, no time like the present.

Caleb’s feet carried him slowly towards the door, he put his hand out to touch the threshold as he hesitated. He sighed and made to turn around, “Caleb? Is that you?”

He closed his eyes briefly before forcing a smile, “Yeah mother, it’s me.” He went into the room so she could see him and he noticed that it was a good night, for her at least. She still had a drink and a cigarette but she didn’t seem drunk, her eyes were clear and her voice wasn’t slow and slurred like it got when she’d had too much.

“Where you out with the boys tonight?” She asked him with that half-smile of hers, the one that held enough worry in it to make Caleb uncomfortable.

Caleb scratched at his jaw and sat down across from her, “No, I was out with my girlfriend.”

His mother sat up straighter in surprise, “Girlfriend?” she lifted her penciled brows at him, “What girlfriend?”

He wanted to smile, what girlfriend indeed. “Her name’s Chloe, she’s a transfer from San Francisco.”  

His mother frowned, “Caleb, you know you can’t just have a girlfriend, not with the secret you and your friends have.”

Caleb winced, “About that mother, she knows.”

“She knows!?” His mother all but shrieked, she flung out her arm as she lurched to her feet and her drink toppled onto the carpet. “Caleb, how could you? Do you know what you’ve done? I cannot believe this, if your father were-“

“Mom! Stop.” Caleb had stood up and his hands were held out in a placating gesture, “Relax mother, I didn’t tell her.”

He’d hoped to stall her with that but he did not succeed. “So she found out! How could you be so careless, dammit Caleb!”

“Mother, calm down, let me explain!” Caleb all but shouted.

His mother quieted but her eyes shone with barely suppressed fury and her hands were balled into fists at her sides. “Then explain, now.” She demanded, and pointed at the armchair, silently demanding he sit.

With a near silent groan he sat and folded his hands together. He didn’t know how to start so he blurted the first thing that came to mind. “She’s my fiancé.”

“She’s what!?” His mother all but roared.

“Wait, wait! That came out wrong.” Oh god, this was not going well.

In an unusual display of sarcasm his mother bit out, “You think?”

“I met her a couple of days ago at that party down at the Dells, then I ran into her yesterday at the pharmacy. Kate was going somewhere so I offered to give Chloe a ride back to the dorms after I’d dropped off the meds with Gordon. She came with me and I left her in the car. When I was with Gordon I asked him if he’d ever heard the name Halliwell, which is Chloe’s last name.”

His mother seemed surprised but didn’t comment as she waited for him to continue. “Gordon told me to bring her up so I did. Gordon started asking her questions and she told us that she’d come from San Francisco to meet us. She knew about the Covenant since she is from a family of powerful witches, a family that is tied to the Covenant. Long story short her ancestor Melinda Warren cursed the Covenant for their misuse of magic, she’s the reason why the powers age us and the only way to break the curse is for the witch of her line and son of the Covenant who were born on the same day to get married before the youngest son ascends.”

His mother was silent for a long moment, “So you are going to just marry this girl because she said so? Caleb don’t be foolish.”

“Mother, if I don’t do this after Tyler ascends all of the still living Sons die.”

She shook her head in disbelief, “You are just going to take her word for it? What if this is all some big hoax, Caleb you cannot trust this girl, you hardly know her.”

Caleb stood up and lightly grasped his mother’s shoulders, “Mother, there’s something you should see.” He tried to tell her with his eyes how serious he was and she must have understood because she nodded.     


	11. A Trip in the Night

It was almost ten o'clock at night when Caleb and his mother pulled up to the colony house. Caleb cut the engine and looked at his mother, "Can you wait until I come get you?"

"Caleb this is ridiculous! What are we doing here?"

Caleb sighed, "Mother please."

She studied him for moment, "Fine, just be quick about it."

Caleb got out of the car and almost jogged to the front door, knocking before using his key. Inside he called, "Gordon? Dad?"

He heard movement upstairs so Caleb went up taking the steps two at a time.

"Caleb, what-?" His father questioned him as soon as he was at the top.

"I don't have time to explain but-" he was cut off by the sound of the front door opening and his mother calling up, "Caleb where are you?"

"Your mother is here!" His father whispered urgently. Caleb nodded helplessly.

"Mother, you said you'd wait in the car." Caleb raised his voice so she could hear him as she came slowly up the stairs.

He could hear her huff angrily before she said, "Honestly Caleb, what are we doing here? If you think Gordon is going to make me any less angry with you the-" His mother's voice cut off abruptly as she came to the top of the staircase and her eyes took in her husband.

"William." She breathed looking like she was about to faint.

William took an aborted step forward, unsure of the reaction it would cause. "Evelyn."

Caleb looked at his mother and she looked like Chloe had frozen her, she moved and it was to bring a shaking hand up to her mouth. "H-How?"

"It was Chloe mother," He told her as he crossed the room. When he reached his mother she steadied herself with a vicelike grip on his arm. "This is my proof, she's telling me the truth, and she's given us a gift. She's given us Dad."

Evelyn heaved a sob and launched herself at her husband who caught her and held her as tightly as he could.

Caleb smiled and ducked his head, feeling like he was intruding on a very private moment. He glanced up at Gordon who nodded at him in approval. "I'll come back in the morning." He mouthed at the caretaker who nodded once again. Caleb went to the stairs and started down, he paused and threw one last glance at his reunited parents. He grinned continued down. Once he was back in his car he called Chloe.

"Hey Caleb," She answered cheerfully.

"I told my mother," Caleb hadn't meant to say that straight away but it slipped out before he could even say hello.

Chloe was quiet for a moment, "When you say you told your mother… what exactly did you tell her?"

"Everything, I took her to see my father." Caleb couldn't keep the happiness off of his face. "She was so shocked but I think she's really happy."

He heard the smile in Chloe's voice when she answered, "That's great Caleb." She paused for a moment, "Hey, Kate just got back in."

Caleb took that hint that it was no longer safe to talk and he said, "It's alright I'll see you in class tomorrow?"

"Yeah! Goodnight Caleb."

He didn't say anything else and he hung up the phone. Caleb shook his head with a content grin, feeling like for once in his life everything was going right.


	12. A Darkling and a Hit to the Head

Caleb found Chloe in the hallway before their class started and pulled her into an empty room. "Caleb, what-?"

He cut off her surprised question with a kiss. Chloe's eyes were wide as she felt his mouth on hers and before she knew it he was pulling away with a flash of white teeth. Getting her bearings she smirked, "You couldn't do that in the hallway?"

He shrugged, looking pleased with himself. "I could have." He told her but then his face sobered and he touched her arm and she felt the heat of his hand through her sweater. "I pulled you in here because I saw a darkling last night."

Chloe frowned, the term was unfamiliar, "A Darkling?"

"It's an illusion, a warning. It starts off in the form of a person and becomes a ghostly monster before it disappears. This is the second one I've seen, the first is one I saw almost got me killed. This one woke me from a dead sleep." He explained to her.

Chloe listened to his explanation trying to think of anything she'd learned about supernatural warnings that resembled Caleb's description but she was brought up short, "Wait, what do you mean it almost killed you!"

Caleb sighed before saying, "I was driving and it showed up in the passenger seat. It distracted me enough that I drove headfirst into a semi."

She gripped his hand, "Caleb!"

He smiled softly and covered her hand with his, "I'm fine, really I am. I had just enough time to use magic and save myself."

"okay," Chloe pursed her lips, and a thought occurred to her. "Who would send you a darkling?"

He just shook his head, looking up when the bell rang for class to start. "You'd better go."

She smiled and started towards the door but stopped when she noticed he wasn't following her. "Aren't you coming?"

"I have a race today."

Chloe tilted her head in a teasing way, "In that case," She took a slow step towards him, "I think a good luck kiss is in order." She stopped moving when they were chest to chest and looked up into Caleb's dark eyes.

"Oh?"

She gave him a sideways grin and stretched up onto her toes, "Yeah." He ducked his head to meet her and they kissed soft and sweet and regretfully she pulled away. "I have to go." She whispered and he nodded, ducking in for one quick peck then pushing her away. She hurried to the door and opened it, Chloe glanced back to see him watching her go. She blushed and shut the door behind her.

She was distracted all day, the darkling was wearing on her mind. She had the feeling that there was something dark just stewing in the background waiting to strike. Chloe really didn't like that feeling. If Kate noticed her distraction she said nothing and Chloe was grateful. The second the last bell rang Chloe was out of her seat and out the door. She reached into her bag and pulled out her cell phone, turning it on and found two missed text messages from Caleb. Reading through them she then dialed his number and started her walk outside.

"Hey Babe." Caleb answered the phone.

Chloe let out a surprised snort, "Its babe now, huh?"

She heard him laugh on the other end of the line, "I guess so, just kind of slipped out."

She grinned, "Oh yeah? Well as fun as this is, you said you saw something today?"

"Yeah, about that, where are you?"

A gust of wind blew Chloe's hair into her face and she brushed it away before answering, "I'm walking back to the dorms."

"Can you orb over here? I'm with Pogue at his place."

Chloe stopped and glanced around, seeing only one other person she ducked around the corner of a building and focused on Caleb, orbing to him. When the white light cleared she was standing in the living room of a house easily as large and grand as Caleb's. "Wow," She said snapping her phone shut, "Nice place."

"Thanks." Pogue's voice answered to her right, he sounded a little awed and when she glanced at him he was schooling his features into a nonchalant expression. She smirked but didn't call him out. She turned and dumped her bag and books on one of the couches.

Chloe straightened her back and looked over at where she knew Caleb was standing, "So what's the emergency?"

"We think-" Caleb started.

Pogue held up a hand, "No, you think."

Caleb rolled his eyes, "Fine, I think, there's something wrong with the Chase kid. I think he might be responsible for the darklings."

Chloe frowned, "I thought darklings could only be cast with Covenant magic."

"Right! I'm telling you Caleb it can't be him." Pogue cut in.

Caleb was shaking his head before Pogue had finished, "And I'm telling you! His eyes were black as night in the pool today."

"Are you sure?" Pogue asked sounding skeptical, "You hit your head pretty hard."

The oldest son scoffed angrily, "Po, I'm not hallucinating."

"You hit your head?" Chloe walked over to him and put her hands on his face, "Are you alright?"

Caleb's eyes softened and he covered her hands with his own and pulled them away from his face. "Yes, but I'm fine and" he glanced at his friend, "I'm not hallucinating, I know what I saw."

"Alright." Pogue gave up and Chloe nodded.

"Then what do we do?" She asked them.

Caleb didn't look like he had any answers he just stared at the two of them with a serious expression on his face.


	13. The Magic Trio

"We need to get a look at his student records."

Po rolled his eyes, "Why?"

Caleb let the air hiss out of his nose, "Because we need to know more about him."

"We'll have to wait for after dark." Chloe supplied, almost cheerfully.

Caleb frowned at her in surprise.

She leaned to the side and lifted her hands, "What? I grew up with two older brothers and magic, law-breaking happened."

The long haired boy huffed out a laughed while her fiancée grinned. The moment was interrupted however when Chloe's phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the name on the display. "It's Kate, gimmie a sec."

"Hey roomie, what's up?" Chloe answered her phone cheerfully.

"Chlo," Kate's voice rasped out over the line, "I'm not feeling too good, I'm going to go to the infirmary."

Chloe was instantly concerned, "What's wrong?" the moment the words were out of her mouth she winced. Forgetting that the hot headed Pogue was in the room. Pogue was in her face in a heartbeat, "Is Kate ok?" She frowned and waved him off, turning her head to listen to her friends reply.

"I have a fever, I'm just going to go in, they'll give me something to take. I'll be ok."

Chloe's frown deepened, "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No, no. It's ok, I'll just get some meds and sleep it off."

"Ok," Chloe said doubtfully, "If you're sure."

"Yeah. Go see Caleb and do something, I'll be fine."

Slightly mollified Chloe nodded, "Alright, feel better. Call me if you want me to come get you."

"I will" The other girl coughed.

"Ok." Chloe told her and said goodbye before hanging up.

"What happened?" Pogue asked, vibrating with anxiety.

She put her hand on his shoulder in a calming gesture. "She's just feeling sick, she's going to the infirmary to get some meds and then she's going to sleep. Everything's fine."

"Why didn't she call me?" He demanded.

"Because she's pissed at you." Caleb cut in.

Pogue went for his phone and Chloe orbed it right out of his pocket and into her waiting hand. "Hey!" he snapped.

The short girl shook her finger at him, "Nu uh, if she wants you she'll call. She's already not feeling well, just give her her space."

He growled at her but didn't argue and Chloe gave him back his phone with a knowing look.

"Who else is hungry?" Caleb suddenly asked and the trio just glanced at each other.


	14. A Magical Break-In

It had long since started to rain by the time it was late enough for the trio to break into the admissions office.

"Why can't you just orb us in there?" Pogue asked Chloe as he and Caleb trudged beside her, their hoods turned up against the wet.

Chloe flicked a piece of wet hair out of her eye before answering, "Well, for one, I don't know if there is any sort of security system in there. Two, I've never been inside so orbing in there could make a lot of noise if I don't know where the furniture is, and three, waiting for you to stop being nauseous will take too much time." She told him in a half whisper before adding with a smirk, "Besides, this is way more fun."

She sped up a little bit so she was in the lead and heard him whisper to Caleb, "You're girl's crazy." She grinned when she heard the smack Caleb gave him in return. Chloe came to a stop at the wrought iron fence and waited for the boys to catch up. Caleb touched her shoulder before passing her and hopping the fence. He turned around to help he over but she orbed to the other side instead. She gave him an impish smile when he gave her an exasperated look. Pogue dropped down next to the couple and motioned for them to continue.

Caleb took the lead and used his powers to unlock the door, the trio looked around to make sure they were alone before opening the door and going through. They made their way through the halls as quietly as they could in the dark before coming to the records room. Caleb checked the labels on the file cabinets looking for the one he wanted before pulling it open and sifting through it. He found Chase's file and took it out.

Handed Chloe and Pogue a couple papers each to look through. Using their flashlights they started to read the papers they had when with a loud happy tone Chloe's phone started to ring. All three of them startled and Chloe rushed to shut it off while Caleb and Pogue were whisper shouting at her to shut it up. She managed to hit the silent switch and it started to vibrate in her hand, still ringing. She glanced at the doorway hearing noise coming from downstairs and in a panic she snatched up her papers and latched on to both guys and orbed them into her dorm room. Caleb swayed on his feet to keep from falling in his surprise. Pogue wasn't so lucky, he ended up sprawled on the ground groaning.

"What the hell?" he moaned.

She cringed and let out a meek, "Sorry!" She glanced at Caleb helplessly, "I thought I heard someone coming."

Recovered from his shock Caleb nodded, "I heard it too. We're just lucky we held on to our papers."

"Yeah, I can orb them back into place when we're done."

Pogue pushed himself off of the floor and slapped his stack of papers into Caleb's chest. "A little warning next time would be nice short-stack."

"Sorry, I panicked, and don't call me that." She shot him a halfhearted glare before glancing at Caleb who was already back to examining the file. "See anything?"

Caleb nodded, "Yeah, his adoptive parents died in a car accident on his birthday." He looked up at her and Pogue with a serious expression, "His eighteenth birthday." He handed the paper to Chloe who looked at it with a grim face.

"It says his real name's Chase Goodwin Pope." She said reading it aloud the name sounded familiar.

The dark haired boy narrowed his eyes, "The name sounds familiar, I just can't place it."

Chloe sat down on her bed and scratched at her head, literally. "Goodwin Pope." She muttered.

"That's it!" Caleb suddenly exclaimed and Chloe snapped her head up in alarm. "Agnes Goodwin Pope! I knew I'd heard it before."

Pogue looked at him blankly, "And who is she?"

Rolling his eyes Chloe's fiancée explained, "In the book of Damnation, she was one of the women attacked by John Putnam. I have to check the book to be sure but I think this proves it, Chase is one of us." Caleb finished with a defeated look on his face.

Chloe sighed before getting up with determination, she picked up all the papers from Chase's file and put them together she handed them to Caleb and said, "You and Pogue should get Reid and Tyler. Tell them what's going on, check the book. I'll meet you guys there."

The Sons agreed and Caleb gave Chloe a soft kiss before leaving the dorm and Chloe sank onto her bed exhausted. He rest was short-lived however, since at that moment her phone started to buzz again. She sighed and sat up checking to see who it was. The display said Spencer's Academy and she frowned, they couldn't know she'd broken in, could they? Hesitantly she pressed accept and held the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Chloe Halliwell?" A woman's voice asked from the other end of the line.

"This is she."

"Hi, my name is Ms. Perkins, I'm from the infirmary at Spencers. I'm calling because you're roommate Kate is here."

"Yes." Chloe said warily.

"I just wanted to inform you that she is very sick. We're going to keep her here overnight and I can call you if she gets any worse-"

"No, that's alright. I'm coming over there." Chloe told the woman before hanging up. She looked for her bag before remembering that she'd left it a Pogue's. Without another thought she orbed into his house and collected her things before orbing back to her dorm. She set down her books but kept her bag and started out of her room.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I'm going to try to keep updating frequently. I'm going to put chapter two up tonight and chapter three tomorrow and so on.


End file.
